Reports have surfaced within the last few hours of Comcast customers being notified after contacting customer service that the cable TV and internet service provider will charge customers as normal for services rendered in the wake of Hurricane Irene, which has left many without services as of today.

When pressed for more information on why Comcast is refusing to credit subscribers for the outage, customer service representatives were informed by upper management that the event was considered an Act of God and was therefore not eligible for an account credit to make up for the loss of services, understandably infuriating many subscribers, after initially being told that they would in fact be credited.Â For its part, Comcast has yet to officially respond to the reports regarding the refusal to credit accounts for the service outage.

Seriously. Comcast needs to rebate these users. The hurricane was THEIR fault. They should have done something to stop that hurricane from happening. Bad network engineers.

Entitlement programs now extend to electric outages caused by natural disasters? Pretty soon we can all stay home when it rains and expect to be paid for it. (Gee, actually that is happening right now, isn’t it?)

Our society is becoming more and more lazy and demanding more and more of what it is NOT entitled to. Disgusting.

@Jack P, give me a break this has nothing to do with entitlements or electricity. Why should comcast customers have to pay for service they didnt receive? Let’s say a moron contractor in my neighborhood starting digging without getting utilities cleared an cuts the cable line and it takes my cable provider a month to get it back online (not likely but just work with me here) its not the providers fault but why should I pay for service that was not available to me? A hurricane isnt any different. If you dont receive service why should you have to pay for it?

@jack p: I agree with Josh. I’m also one of those customers and have been without my services for over a week now. If I’m not getting my service, for any reason, I shouldn’t be charged for it. I understand that Comcast is doing everything they can to restore service, I’m not demanding anything more of them in that respect. I know they didn’t cause the disaster and that they have many customers that they are trying to restore service to. On the other hand, it is Comcast’s responsibility to deliver these services to me, and since I’m not under contract, and able to cancel at anytime, I shouldn’t have to pay for a week plus of service that wasn’t available to me. And I won’t pay. If they don’t credit me, I’m done with Comcast.

What does the contract say?
‘The subscriber agrees to pay each month for … for what?’
What are the exceptions in the contract waiving the subscribers obligation to pay?

It’s not a question of what ComCast should or shouldn’t do other than perform as stated in the contract.

If after reading and actually comprehending your contract you discover that it favors ComCast more than you even to the point of adhesion then you have a descision to make as to who will be your provider in the future and you will be no doubt a bit more careful in that decision making process.

@Steve Tassio: You’re absolutely right about the importance of reading the terms of the contract. Even though my cell carrier had major cell tower outages in my area and throughout the state, I didn’t call them up looking for credits, because according to the terms of my contract, there is no guaranty of cell coverage in any particular location, and I am under contract. My Comcast services, on the other hand, are month to month, and I didn’t agree to or sign ANY contract or terms and conditions when I signed up for the service, or since. There is no contract, and no terms and conditions, or at least none that was brought to my attention, in the mail, online, over the phone, or otherwise. And just for the record, my cell company DID contact me and offer me a courtesy credit or bonus minutes to make up for the outages, which they didn’t have to do, but it was a very nice gesture. And I also could have called Comcast and cancelled my service when the outage occurred, and signed up again when it was restored, and not paid for that period. I would have done that, if the Comcast representative hadn’t told me that I will be credit for the time out of service initially. I should have recorded the call!